About 800 people turned out at the Zeiterion for the local premiere of "Fairhaven," a film that splashes the town's iconic buildings and landscapes on the big screen as the backdrop to a drama between four old friends.

MATT CAMARA

NEW BEDFORD — They said the scenery was great. The graphic language, sexual content and rampant drug use, not so much.

About 800 people turned out at the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center for the SouthCoast premiere of "Fairhaven," a film by Tom O'Brien that splashes the town's iconic buildings and landscapes on the big screen as the backdrop to an unfolding drama between four old friends.

The movie was shown as part of the Buzzards Bay Film Festival, organized by the Buzzards Bay Coalition to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Although the movie has had limited showings, primarily at film festivals, it will have a limited theater distribution come January, O'Brien said while introducing the film to the audience.

"Beautiful scenery of boats, water, the quaint architecture ..." theater-goer Tracy Tarvers wrote in a note to a reporter after the movie ended. "However ... I would say they said the F-word 55 times ... (there was) a strip club and basically this was a tragic disappointment that the wonderful town of Fairhaven does not deserve."

The grit is just part and parcel of real life, even in Fairhaven, Board of Selectmen Chairman Brian Bowcock said.

"I wasn't offended by anything in the movie," he said, adding that the drug use and foul language showed viewers the "hard life" locals can have, especially around the waterfront.

The movie begins with actor Chris Messina — who has had roles in "Argo" and on the television show "The Newsroom" — playing Dave, who returns to Fairhaven for his father's funeral after spending a number of years in Las Vegas and Arizona. Dave reunites with his old friends Jon (played by O'Brien), Sam and Kate as they catch up on the past and remember how close they once were.

The character-driven movie revolves around the theme of "boomeranging" back to one's hometown.

"I'm from Medford and nobody goes back to Medford, but we found that this boomerang effect happens a lot in seaside towns," said O'Brien, who wrote, directed and starred in the movie.

O'Brien said the Fairhaven landscape inspired him to set the film here after he spent time in town visiting his mother, who owned a house on Homestead Avenue.

The film hits every major Fairhaven landmark from Town Hall to Fort Phoenix and even some SouthCoast ones like Lees Market in Westport. And with character Dave's gritty lifestyle — including drug use — there are plenty of shots of the region's less "historic" locales, such as Temptation Gentlemen's Club on Popes Island.

The edgier side of the film left some viewers upset, others maintaining the film was accurate and a few simply annoyed at how the town was portrayed.

"We have an earthy type of culture out here," Bill Connolly, who played a cook in the film, said when asked if the movie's sharper content accurately depicted Fairhaven.

Connolly's daughter, Margo Connolly — who works for the coalition — said the film was accurate yet stylized. She pointed out that O'Brien's character works on a fishing boat, something that isn't typical of young people in SouthCoast but which offered a glimpse of the waterfront to viewers unfamiliar with the region.

Some content questions aside, viewers unanimously praised the film's cinematography and said they were glad to see places familiar to them in front of a national audience.

"I just love the area," O'Brien said. "I noticed it again today driving into Fall River on I-195. It has a character, like a Bruce Springsteen song should be playing when you drive in."